In 1820, the Crown bought the area surrounding the waterways. The
area around the creeks, 960 acres
(approximately 4 km²), ceded to the Crown by the Mississaugas,
was auctioned off to William Chisholm in 1827. He
left the development of the area to his son, Robert Kerr Chisholm and his
brother-in-law, Thomas Merrick.

Oakville's first industries included shipbuilding, timber shipment,
and wheat farming. In the 1850s, there was an economic recession
and the foundry, the most important industry in town, was closed.
Basket-making became a major industry in the town, and the Grand Trunk Railway was built through
it.

In 1962
the town of Oakville merged with its neighbouring villages
(Bronte, Palermo,
Sheridan, and the remainder of Trafalgar Township) to become the new
Town of Oakville, reaching northwards to Steeles Avenue in Milton. In
1973, the restructuring of Halton County into Halton Region brought
the northern border southwards to just north of Highway 407

Neighbourhoods

Oakville's Planning Department divides the town into communities.
These divisions have little to do with politics and are based on
traditional neighbourhoods.

Old Oakville

Oakville Harbour

Old
Oakville is located in South-Central Oakville along the shore of
Lake
Ontario. It is the original Oakville Settlement and
is centred on Oakville Harbour.

Bronte

Bronte is located in Southwest Oakville along the shore of Lake
Ontario. It is a community centred on Bronte Harbour and includes
the Coronation Park district to its east.

Eastlake

Eastlake is located in Southeast Oakville along the shore of Lake
Ontario. It is bordered on the west by Morrison Creek and to the
north by Cornwall Road. 2005 Town Planning documents say its
eastern boundary is Winston Churchill Blvd but the same document's
map shows a different configuration.

Clearview

Clearview is located in Centre East Oakville, also referred to as
Sherwood Heights, and the Complex.

Demographics

According to the 2006 Canadian Census Oakville had 165,613
residents. This represents a 14.4% increase since the 2001
Census.

According to the 2006 census, Oakville had a younger population
than Canada as a whole. Minors (youth under 19 years of age)
totalled 28.1 percent of the population compared to pensioners who
number 11.7 percent. This compares with the Canadian average of
24.4 percent (minors) and 13.7 percent (pensioners).

Because of
its close proximity to Toronto, Oakville is
increasingly becoming diverse. As of 2006, 81.2% of the
population was white. Other groups
include South Asian: 6.0%, Chinese: 3.2%, black: 2.1%, and mixed race:
2%

The median household income was $83,982 with an average house value
of $306,209. Oakville, along with its neighbouring cities
of Mississauga and Burlington, are among
the most affluent municipalities in Canada.

Sports

Oakville has a long history of sporting. The only recognized
professional sports team in Oakville is the Oakville Blue Devils of Canadian Soccer League. The
Blue Devils are affiliated with the Oakville Soccer Club, which is
the biggest soccer club in Canada. The other professional team is
the Oakville Ice women's ice hockey team of the NWHL. Oakville is
home to the Oakville Crusaders Rugby club, the largest in Canada,
Crusaders also has the biggest junior rugby program in
Canada.

Events

Downtown Oakville Jazz Festival

The Downtown Oakville
Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival
that has been taking place since 1992. This event includes free
concerts on 5 stages along Lakeshore Road during the weekend.

Waterfront Festival

Oakville is home to its own annual Waterfront Festival.
The
Oakville
Waterfront Festival is an event that the whole town is anxious to
attend each year.The event usually consists of small
amusement park rides, concerts from Canada's most
popular bands, for example Hedley in the 2008
Oakville Waterfront Festival, and of course food and drinks.
The Waterfront Festival takes place sometime at the end of June
each year. The Waterfront Festival is hosted at
Oakville's Cornation Park with a view of Lake Ontario.

The for the Love of the Arts Festival

Once a year, usually in late spring, Oakville's arts and music
groups get together for the Love of the Arts Festival. Hosted by
CommUnity Arts Space [26962], a local umbrella groups that has been
advocating for a shared physical space for Oakville's arts and
cultural groups since 2002, this festival is the only
multi-disciplinary community festival of its kind in town and
showcases local talent, skills, crafts, literary art, dance
performances, theatre groups, music performances and much more. A
symbolic presentation of a "shared space", the one-day event is
entirely sponsored by local corporate and private donations and
helps to nurture friendships and understanding between participants
and visitors alike.

In each
ward one councillor represents the ward solely on Oakville Town
Council, and the other is a member of the 21-member governing
council of the Regional Municipality of
Halton, in addition to being a member of the 13-member
Town Council.

Provincial

Oakville is situated in two provincial ridings which use the same boundaries as
the federal ridings and are currently represented provincially
by:

Federal

Arts and culture

The Oakville Arts Council

The Oakville Arts Council
(OAC) promotes arts and culture in Oakville. Formed in 1978, the
Council is a not-for-profit charitable, umbrella organization
representing a large and diverse membership from the Oakville arts
community. It's mission is to cultivate the arts and to enrich the
creative life of the Community of Oakville. The OAC provides a
collective voice for, and is the most comprehensive resource for
the Arts in Oakville - connecting the public to more than 300
individual artists, arts groups and business members, their
exhibitions, events and classes. Members are entitled to a variety
of services intended to enable artistic pursuits including
promotional, educational, networking and training opportunities.
The Council publishes Arts About Town, Oakville's only
magazine dedicated to local artists and arts issues. For more
information about the Oakville Arts Council’s services or to visit
their up-to-date calendar of local art events visit www.oakvillearts.com.

Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts

Oakville Centre for the
Performing Arts

Oakville Centre for the Performing
Arts houses several performances by local and
international artists. It is also the performing venue for the
Oakville Symphony Orchestra and the Oakville Ballet Company. The
Oakville Arts Council provides further artistic talents in the town
showcasing films, literary figures and visual arts.

CommUnity Arts Space

The Town of Oakville boasts many not-for-profit artistic, musical
and cultural groups. These groups have been struggling to develop
membership and programming due to lacking physical spaces. The
groups joined forces in 2004, advocating for a shared space for
arts, music and culture in Oakville, spearheaded by an advocacy
group called CommUnity Arts Space (CUAS). CUAS has worked for a
shared home for the arts and cultural groups for many years and is
looking forward to the opening of Oakville's newest community
centre in the former Queen Elizabeth Park (QEP) high school in
Bronte, Oakville, in September 2011. The 140,000 sq ft. facility,
owned and operated by the Town of Oakville, will provide easy
access to recreational, cultural and artistic programmes for
residents of all ages, and will provide an enormous range of
opportunities for joint programmes, events and educational
opportunities.

Oakville Galleries

Oakville Galleries is a public art museum owned by the Town of
Oakville and operated by a non-profit corporation. It consists of
two operations: Centennial Gallery, located in downtown Oakville;
and Gairloch Gallery, located in East Oakville. Oakville Galleries
is governed by an a board of directors elected by members and the
Town.

Sister cities

Oakville
is twinned with the cities of Dorval, in Quebec,
and Neyagawa, Japan. The Town of
Oakville has named two major streets for these cities.

Media

Oakville is primarily served by media based in Toronto with markets
in the Greater Toronto Area
(GTA) that cover most of the news in the GTA. However, Oakville
also has two regional newspapers. The Oakville Beaver is published every
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and Oakville Today is
published every Thursday.

Hamilton based Television station CHCH-TV serves Hamilton, Halton and Niagara,
thus including Oakville. CHCH recently closed its Halton
Bureau (due to budget considerations) which was located in downtown
Oakville.